careful

Etymology

From Middle English careful, from Old English carful; equivalent to care + -ful.

adj

1. Taking care; attentive to potential danger, error or harm; cautious.
   He was a slow and careful driver.
   Be very careful while trekking through the jungle.
2. Conscientious and painstaking; meticulous.
   They made a careful search of the crime scene.
   At the same time, we were cognisant that careful scholars should never solely rely on their own impressionistic observations, and, that our own impressions were inexact and not capable of being quantified. 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 7
3. (obsolete) Full of care or grief; sorrowful, sad.
4. (obsolete) Full of cares or anxiety; worried, troubled.